Question: Yearbook

We have been losing money with our yearbooks. Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can have yearbooks for our students and not lose money. We have less than 300 students so we don't qualify for any real discounts. Would apprectiate any info. Thanks!


Asked by MelPom

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Answers:

Community Advice

Ms.B writes:
Price shop! There are tons of companies out there that have been doing yearbooks for years, tell them your concerns and that parents won't pay over $x.xx, maybe they can help you. You could also sell ads to local businesses to help offset costs. You can sell ad space to parents to write their child a note or include a photo with it, you'll need to come up with a price structure for it though, and remember adding pages can add to the costs too. Good luck!


Community Advice

CMay2CK writes:
We sell notes from parents (usually a big hit with 5th graders). I've always thought that adding a business card section would be helpful to offset costs. We've done that in our School Directory in the past. Parents pay a nominal fee (I think ours was $20) to have their business card printed in the book.


Community Advice

Mrs. K writes:
You could down size your yearbook. Have less pages and only do black and white. Go to different local print shops for prices. Get computer savvy parents to help. I'm in charge of our school's yearbook, mostly because my husband is a graphic designer and works at a print shop. We do ALOT of the work at home, so it's cheaper. Our school also has less than 300 students.


Community Advice

mdjbemartin writes:
A few questions first.. How many pages do you have? Are you going full color or b & w? I have been doing the yearbook for several years now.. I have dealt with Memory Book, Inter-State and am now using Carr Publishing. I do a 56 page, full color, saddle stitch yearbook. I use my own program and upload a pdf to the publisher. I don't think I've ever ordered more than 275 books, I sell each book for $13, we make less than $.50 per book. I sell comments to parents, grandparents, staff and students for $2 for up to 30 words. Call around and ask for pricing on what you are looking for.. That's the only way to get a better price. You should still be qualified for specials and discounts even though you are not ordering a large quantity of books.


Community Advice

t20wenties writes:
create your own yearbook. binderproyearbooks.com gives you a few options to create your own hardcover yearbook.


Community Advice

ptanproud writes:
I would take a look at Treering.com. No upfront cost and print to order. Saved my school lots of money. Also they have this function where kids can customize a few pages with their own photos and memorabilia. What made me feel good was they print a book for each book sold.


Community Advice

ptanproud writes:
I like www.treering.com. No upfront cost and saved my school a lot of money. No more books sitting gathering dust. We just order what we pre-sold. Price is competitive and the kids get 2 pages to customize with their own photos and memorabilia. Like the idea that they plant a tree for each book printed.


Community Advice

abumpus writes:
School Annual will work with you to make your program work for you. They have really helpful people—yearbook specialists that become your partner and will provide support from creating your pages through selling your books, and make sure your yearbook program fits your budget. www.schoolannual.com


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